INBOUND INSIGHTS

United Kingdom

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Inbound Marketing Adoption

Dramatic growth in adoption of inbound in 2014The number of UK marketers who are practicing inbound

marketing in the UK has seen a dramatic increase in 2014

with an additional 25% of marketers adopting an inbound

marketing strategy.

Trending alongside our North American counterpartsThe UK is often cited as being 18 months behind marketing

trends in the US, but this isn’t true for inbound marketing.

The UK adoption rate of 79% is marginally smaller than the

current US adoption rate of 85%. 0102030405060

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Inbound marketing adoption has grown significantly in 2014.

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Inbound services have certainly increased. To be frank, we are seeing most businesses go for content provision rather than a cohesive strategy as they think content publishing without a purpose is enough to generate results, but the execution needs to be revisited for many businesses. The main thing missing is the focus on ensuring the content production is aligned to the media instead of what the organisations “think” the target audience & media require. Think channel first, then about what you have to say. Combining that with a creative experience to cut through the content “white noise” will stand you in good stead.

Alistair NormanMarketing Director Tomorrow People @AlistairNorman

What changes have you seen in the demand for inbound services in the last 12 months? Why do you think that has been the case?

What the Experts Say ...

B2B marketers are using inbound or content marketing to address both the brand and demand generation challenges, but they’re also increasingly using it to address other marketing-related challenges. In any instance where an organisation needs to communicate specific information to a specific audience or group of stakeholders, like recruitment and HR or customer service, there is the potential for inbound ‘marketing’ to play a role. In this day and age, we expect the information (of any kind) that we want to be freely available and accessible via search engines. The challenge for B2B brands is to present it in an attractive and digestible format.

Joel HarrisonEditor-in-chiefB2B Marketing

@Joel_B2BEditor

What role do you think inbound marketing will play in the next 12 months for B2B companies? to secure higher budgets?

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Inbound Marketing ROI

1 in 5 marketers are not measuring ROIIt seems there is much room for improvement here; 21% of UK marketers said

they did not measure ROI, which was almost identical to the US figure of 22%.

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B2C companies in the UK are having the most success with inboundAlmost half (48%) of B2C companies are seeing greater ROI with inbound

marketing compared to 36% of B2B companies, and 40% of non-profits. This

is different from the US where non-profits are seeing the most success (47%),

with B2B and B2C both at 37%.

Inbound Marketing ROI

Responses with N/A have been excluded from these charts

Greater ROI than theprevious year.

Inbound marketing adoption has grown significantly in 2014.

We measure ROI We don’t measure ROI

INBOUND ROI BY COMPANY TYPE

INBOUND ROI MEASUREMENT UK vs US

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Inbound Marketing Budgets

B2C companies are growing their inbound budgets faster than B2BWith B2C companies seeing better results from inbound marketing, more

B2C (47%) have managed to increase their inbound marketing budgets

than B2B companies (42%) or non-profits (27%). This differs from the US

where B2B companies have seen the greater increase in their inbound

marketing budget (47%) followed by B2C (42%) and non-profit (40%).

Past success with inbound is the biggest reason for budget adjustmentsIt’s clear from our data that past success with inbound

is the number one factor in inbound marketing budget

adjustments. 40% of UK marketers said this was the

deciding factor, followed by a change in management

(28%) and economy (27%).

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INBOUND MARKETING BUDGET BY COMPANY TYPE FACTORS INFLUENCING INBOUNDMARKETING BUDGET

Past Success with Inbound Marketing

Past FailuresInbound Marketing

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Marketing Priorities

Smaller companies focus on growing the top of their funnel and customer baseFor companies of less than 200 employees, the top priorities

are increasing leads (25%) and converting existing leads into

customers (22%). These are the same priorities as a company

in the US of a similar size who prioritise increasing leads (24%)

and converting those leads into customers (22%).

Customer marketing is a bigger priority for larger companiesBigger companies in the UK (1000+) are focused on reaching

the right audience (23%) and increasing their revenue from

existing customers (20%). 0

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Increasingnumber of

contacts/leads

Reaching therelevant audience

Convertingcontacts/leadsto customers

Proving the ROIof marketing

activities

Increasing revenue derived

from existingcustomers

Reducing the costof contacts/leads/

customer acquisition

TOP MARKETING PRIORITIES BY COMPANY SIZE

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Inbound Marketing Priorities

Marketers who are being successful with inbound prioritise SEOMarketers who saw a greater ROI from inbound marketing this

year are prioritising the growth of their organic traffic through

SEO (43%).

B2C companies have more interactive contentB2C and B2B companies are closely aligned on their top inbound

marketing priorities; growing SEO and creating blog content.

However, B2C companies do tend to focus a lot more on creating

interactive content, where B2B companies are a lot more focused on

webinars.

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Blogcontentcreation

Longformvisual

contentcreation

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amplification

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Producthow-tovideos

GrowingSEO/

organicpresence

Blogcontentcreation

Longformvisual

contentcreation

Interactivecontentcreation

Contentdistribution

amplification

Webinars OnlineTools

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GrowingSEO/

organicpresence

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MARKETERS AREPRIORITISING SEO

Marketers who saw a positive ROI from inbound marketing are prioritisingthe growth of organic traffic.

Top Marketing Priorities

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

We hear so much about SEO being dead, but the most successful inbound marketers are prioritising SEO. How important is SEO as part of an inbound marketing strategy?

What the Experts Say ...

Despite the fact there is a lot of noise around ‘content marketing’ or ‘data’ right now, the inescapable fact is that organic search is still THE most important channel for almost all brands and industries in ROI terms. Social is catching up relatively quickly and paid search is a profitable tactic but long-term brands need to grow an ‘owned’ audience if they have any ambition to truly grow value. Speak to any brand spending big across all digital ‘channels’ and they will always tell you that organic search is the most profitable for them if the strategy and execution is right.

To be clear, SEO is most certainly not dead, it is just changing and we need to adapt. There is still a strong need to have a technically sound website which is easy for search engines to crawl and understand, which contains quality content and provides a great user experience. The definition of SEO can be very subjective. If we put technical work to one side, we still have lots of other related areas including link building and promotion. These are as important as ever but again, things have changed quite a bit in terms of our approach and the impact of links.

I still believe that SEO is an important part of the overall strategy of a business and if you forget about it or ignore it, then all the other work you do may not be as effective as it could be.

Simon PensonMD & FounderZazzle Media

@SimonPenson

Paddy MooganVP London

Distilled@PaddyMoogan

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

B2B content marketing is almost in a formats crisis. As a discipline, we’ve settled into a few staple formats – the blog post, eBook, SlideShare, explainer video and infographic. It’s critical to expand our repertoire and find new ways to tell stories, especially ways that are made for the screens in our lives.

B2C brands are kicking our asses again; I hate that. B2B pioneered the new era of content but we’re leaving the high ground – innovation, emotion and great storytelling – to the consumer guys.

B2C is more into interactive because they’re creating screen-native experiences while B2B are still utilising formats from the print era. They realise that they’re in the entertainment business as well as the education businesss. B2B brands need to wake up to this and go beyond our comfort zone and into the wild west, where lazy old-school presentation doesn’t cut it.

Doug KesslerCreative Director &

Co-FounderVelocity Partners@DougKessler

Do you feel B2B companies could be a little more adventurous with the different types of content formats they produce? Are B2B companies still trailing B2C companies in this area?

What the Experts Say ...

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Top Marketing Challenges

Proving ROI has become more of a challenge for UK marketersThe top marketing challenges for UK marketers are proving the

ROI of their marketing activities (29%) and securing enough budget

(16%). This is a change from 2013 when securing enough budget

was the top marketing challenge at 22%, and proving ROI was

second at 21%. Although marketers feel proving ROI is a top

challenge, it’s interesting that so few listed it as a top priority (13%).

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activities

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talent

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Proving ROI has become a bigger challenge for marketers in 2014.

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

What the Experts Say...

There is simply an overwhelming number of marketing related software products out there, analytics or otherwise. Marketers, especially generalists in smaller businesses without dedicated digital marketing teams simply don’t have the skills or time to adequately research, evaluate, and narrow down a solution to their problems, let alone gain executive buy-in in order to implement a solution. These marketers need to stop spinning their wheels by committing multiple random acts of tactical marketing kindness and take time out to build their own strategic vision for the future of their marketing department.

They need to build a story that they can take to their executive leadership that clearly articulates where they are versus where they could be as well as a potential path for getting from A to B. If they don’t, they risk being stuck in a cycle that can only lead to dissatisfaction at their own performance or worse still, their employers being dissatisfied at their performance.

Craig WiltshireFounder & CEO, Struto

@CraigWiltshire

With all the different analytics tools available today, why do you think such a large percentage of marketers are still not measuring ROI?

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Top Marketing Challenges

Marketing leaders and practitioners have the same challengesThere was no difference in the top challenges of a marketing

leader versus a practitioner; they both listed proving ROI and

securing budget as their top marketing challenges.

Hiring talent is not proving a challenge for marketing leadersA surprising statistic is how little marketing leadership are

troubled by hiring top talent, with only 3% of leaders citing this

as a top challenge.

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Provingthe ROIof mkt.

activities

Securing enough budget

Finding an executive sponsor

Training my team

Managingmy

website

Targetingcontentfor an

internationalaudience

Hiringtop

talent

Other Identifying right

technology for needs

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

,

Hiring talent is essential for the on-going success of a marketing team and should be a strategic priority. The team needs to be made up of key players who work together to achieve results and individuals with varied talents, from writing, to PPC, and SEO. Building a network of talented employees attracts other talented individuals to want to become a part of the business and networks.

It can be a difficult process but the key is not to be narrow in the recruitment funnel, as you run the risk of rejecting talented people; it’s better to ask ‘killer’ questions and make sure that you’re getting the right people in the right roles. Hiring right the first time can save a lot of pain further down the line.

Bryan AdamsCEO & Co-founder

PH Creative@Bryan_phc

How important is hiring talent to the success of a marketing team? Are you surprised by our statistic that shows only 3% of marketing leaders feel hiring is a top marketing challenge?

What the Experts Say ...

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Inbound Execution

Inbound practices generate the majorty of leadsBoth B2C (38%) and B2B (34%) companies are generating the

majority of their leads from inbound practices. It’s not surprising

that B2C companies are on the higher end of the scale as we’ve

already seen that they’ve had better success and are increasing

their spend on inbound at a higher rate than B2B companies.

A lost opportunityIt’s interesting to see so few B2B companies are using paid

media, including social media ads to generate leads (7%). They

could be missing a huge opportunity to leverage social media

advertising to distribute their content and to generate leads.

US Companies Generate More Leads from Inbound than the UKUS marketers are generating a higher portion of their leads from

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inbound than companies in the UK, with B2C companies

at 48% and B2B at 44%.

Inbound practices (e.g. SEO, Referrals, Social Media, Content/Blog)Outbound practices (e.g. Cold Calling, TV/Outdoor Ads, Trade Shows, Purchased lists)Paid media (e.g. PPC, Social Media Ads)Self-sourced leads from sales teamDon’t know/ not applicable

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Inbound Execution

Social becomes an invaluable lead sourceLeads from inbound channels are more important

than ever, with social media topping the list at

82%. Email marketing (71%), SEO (70%) and

blogs (65%) are the other channels that marketers

value as a source of leads.

Traditional marketing is declining in popularityWhen it comes to lead sources that are declining

in value, again both the US and UK are aligned,

with direct mail, traditional advertising, and

tradeshows down at the bottom of the scale.

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Social media is increasingly becoming an important source of leads for marketers.

Direct Mail

TradeShows

EmailMarketing

Tele-marketing

Blogs Social Media

SEO PPC Traditional Marketing

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Although it’s refreshing to see social media playing a key role in sourcing leads, we still have a long way to go with brands and marketers using social media effectively. There is still far too much broadcasting and explicit selling – which will not convert your target audience into customers. Businesses need to be a lot smarter – social media takes time; building trust and loyalty doesn’t happen overnight, you have to build and nurture relationships. It’s about connecting with your target audience and showing a brands human side, people buy from people after all.

Lilach BullockCo-founder & Director

Comms Axis@LilachBullock

Why do you feel social media has become such an important source of leads for marketers? Do you feel it’s because marketers are starting to understand how to use social more effectively?

What the Experts Say ...

With 1.8 billion active social network users and the number growing rapidly by the day, social media has transitioned to a mature and essential marketing channel. Social media is a rich source of information about what potential customers really need, their interests, and what motivates them. I don’t think any other channel provides such actionable intelligence. In the same way analytics revolutionised planning and deployment of PPC campaigns, data and insights gathered from social media are now the game changer in the industry; it enables a new level of dynamic targeting. Marketers can identify opportunities and act on them immediately, not just through social channels, but right across the marketing mix.

Javier BurónCEO & Co-founder

SocialBro@JavierBuron

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2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Inbound Execution

Sales are on board with inbound leadsInterestingly, sales are also starting to value leads

from inbound channels more, with social media

on top (64%) followed by email marketing (62%)

and SEO (52%). This would suggest the quality

of leads from inbound channels are higher than

leads generated through outbound methods.

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Direct Mail

TradeShows

EmailMarketing

Tele-marketing

Blogs Social Media

SEO PPC Traditional Marketing

Sales are starting to value leads from inbound channels more.

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

One of email’s strengths is that it’s a push channel, whereas SEO and Social are pull channels. This of course explains why sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter account for the majority of emails being sent worldwide – they are trying to leverage the power of driving traffic back to their sites. Being a permission-based push channel means that we can deliver valuable and relevant content to our prospects’ inboxes.

Another of email’s strengths is the power of personalising the journey for the customer. Over the years, consumers have been conditioned and delighted by the likes of Amazon with their personallised emails and website. So much so, that as consumers we’ve now come to expect this as being the norm. Using email to nurture these inbound leads by sending the leads more valuable and personalised information/content according to their persona, position in the funnel, their browsing or transactional behaviour, generates not only warmer leads for marketers, but also a helpful experience for our leads -- so it’s a win-win situation!

The way I see it is that we don’t want to be looking at this via channels – but rather what works best for the customer as well as ourselves.

Kath PayMarketing Director

cloud.IQ@KathPay

Email is still one of the most important channels for marketing, why do you feel it has remained such a constant for marketers even through the growth of things like SEO and Social Media?

What the Experts Say ...

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Inbound Execution

Successful inbound marketers create content themselvesCompanies who have seen a greater ROI from

inbound marketing in 2014 use their staff (43%),

executives (21%) and freelancers (12%) as

their top content sources. Although staff is the

top content source for marketers who’ve been

successful with inbound marketing, it’s also

the top source (53%) for people who have a

lower ROI this year from inbound. Could this be

related to the fact that hiring top talent hasn’t

been prioritised?

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Companies who are successful with inbound marketing tend to use their staff for content creation.

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2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Inbound Execution

Larger companies are morelikely to outsource their content creationCompanies of all sizes listed staff as their top

source of content, but unsurprisingly companies

greater than 1000 employees were making

a lot more use of both agencies (19%) and

freelancers (19%).

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Smaller companies are more likely to use internal resources to create their content.

Writing Panels

Writing Panels

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Small businesses should aim for content self-sufficiency. Clever content marketing can really accelerate business growth but to crack this, you have to build an internal culture for content, one where everyone contributes. You want an environment where your owned media are seen as valuable business assets, and people are proud to be part of the publishing process.

If I could only afford to invest in one thing, I’d get an expert to devise strong, re-usable, adaptive content formats for all my contributors to create content into. These pay dividends by cutting creation time, streamlining production, and increasing the usability and quality of the content, whatever the ability of the author.

Catherine TooleChairman, Sticky Content

@CatherineToole

Do you feel small companies are sourcing their content from the right places? What are they missing out on?

What the Experts Say ...

Many small business owners have a perception that the costs of content marketing are oppressively high, but I think this is a fallacy. Content doesn’t need to be expensive, it just needs to be properly targeted to the audience. Make a business case, experiment, and remember that great content drives leads and sales over the long-term.

Consider where existing budgets are being spent and the ROI from those investments. For example, plenty of SMEs retain PR agencies and freelancers, even though PR is harder than ever and it’s difficult to measure. In an age where all businesses can become publishers, is it wise to spend a monthly retainer on a PR agency if it means you cannot invest in content, social, or SEO? The costs vary massively, but really it’s just about the business case. If it works, forget about the costs. If it doesn’t work, bin it.

Chris LakeDirector of Content

Econsultancy@Lakey

2014 INBOUND INSIGHTS: UNITED KINGDOM

Inbound Execution

1/3 companies don’t have good alignment between sales & marketingThere is a high number of UK marketers (33%)

who have not created an SLA for their sales team.

However, the number of marketers who have

created an SLA is higher than those who have not,

with both the UK and US at 40%.

Having an SLA positively correlates to a higher inbound budget.Almost half (48%) of companies who have

implemented an SLA saw an increase in their

inbound budget, compared to 34% who didn’t

have an SLA in place. Furthermore, it also

correlates with seeing a reduction in budget, with

20% of marketers who haven’t implemented an SLA reducing their

budget for inbound and only 11% of marketers who did have an SLA

reducing theirs.

Lower InboundMarketing Budget

SLA positively correlates to higher inbound budget.

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Yes, we have an SLA

No, we don’t have an SLA